Fambaa With Shield Generator And Gungan Warrior - EI - Creatures

Giant swamp lizards called fambaas are key to Gungan defense on the battlefield. Working in pairs, the forward fambaa's apparatus fires energy into a receiver mounted on the rear beast, creating a bubble-like shield that unites with other fambaa shields to form an enormous canopy of protection over the Grand Army.

No matter your position on the film, The Phantom Menace Episode I toy line provided collectors with some of the most incredibly developed products that the Star Wars collecting community ever saw produced within the Star Wars brand. With a rich basic figure line augmented with “talking” Star Wars figures (through a CommTech chip and reader) to a diverse vehicles, Episode I added every corner of the new Star Wars universe into our collections with color, detail, and fantastic sculpting. And let’s not forget about the Cinema Scenes and the expansive 12-Inch Figures. They also provided new and exciting ways to appreciate the new worlds we witnessed in The Phantom Menace. The Episode I line exceeded most collectors’ budgets, and many had to pass on many items to eat. Perhaps the biggest surprise, and we mean that literally, came in the form of the FAO Schwarz exclusive Fambaa And Shield Generator With Gungan Warrior set. It is massive, it pairs a beast with a rider, and it checks off an important required piece to the Battle of Naboo. For right around $75 you received an enormous Fambaa beast, a Shield Generator that sits atop of the Fambaa and a unique Gungan Warrior with an extra-long staff to steer the Fambaa into battle. Inside of the package, the Fambaa And Shield Generator With Gungan Warrior was a sight to behold, and many collectors couldn’t wait to add it to their collection. Released in time for Christmas 1999, the set sold very well initially, and collectors became hungry for more.

The Fambaa is a beautifully designed creature, but sadly it comes without any articulation. You’d think that Hasbro could have added swivel legs or a swivel head to keep things simple, but they thought against it and kept an aesthetically pleasing form of the Fambaa beast without any cuts for articulation. Interestingly, the Faamba is put together piecemeal, and you can see where the parts are glued together to form the shape of the creature. The Fambaa isn’t to the proper scale, but it’s not off by a lot either. With an exquisite design, the Fambaa comes to life thanks to the stunning paint operations given to it. Hasbro designed the Fambaa with textures skin, And then they accented these lines with a “graph paper-like” pattern that brings depth and dimension to the Fambaa’s skin. Designed in a walking motion, you’re limited in how many ways you can pose the beast in your collection, but it’s a beautiful display worthy of your time and energy. It’s truly one of Hasbro’s finest moments in the Episode I line. For those of you who do not know, the original concept of the Fambaa resembled a Kaadu. But soon the four-legged design was approved by George Lucas, and he asked concept artist Terryl Whitlatch to develop a demonstration for ILM animators to show them how the creature should move. So, it would have been wonderful to see this toy get a little more love in the articulation department.

Also included with the Fambaa is a Shield Generator accessory. Hasbro designed this accessory beautifully as well. It has pearly elements to it which capture any light source shining on it. It has a “cockpit” area that is big enough to stand the included Gungan Warrior figure. And once you add it to the Fambaa, it likes to stay there. We had some difficulty removing ours from the beast, so be careful if you’re looking to do the same. The Gungan Warrior is an all-new figure. It looks a lot like a mixture of the Episode I basic figures Jar Jar Binks and Captain Tarpals, but from what we can tell, it possesses all-new tooling. He comes with a very, very long battle cesta. But we need to warn you. The plastic Hasbro utilized to create this accessory is unacceptably brittle. We have witnessed them crumbling into multiple pieces where it wasn’t any longer possible to glue the parts together. It is a nice accessory that complements the set perfectly, so please be extra careful with it. FAO Schwarz kept the Fambaa And Shield Generator With Gungan Warrior set active in their stores for “years” after its original release, but by the end of 2001, the set hit $15 and was quickly purchased by Hasbro fans. We received quite a few “animals” from The Phantom Menace in the Episode I toy line. We wish Hasbro would produce more, but overall, they didn’t perform as they should have at retail. It’s likely that what we’ve received to date is all we’re ever going to get.